Brazil's democratic future is at stake in the upcoming October elections. During a stop over in the Amazonia, the indigenous vice-presidential candidate met on the water with her fellow fighters. Images: Pablo Albarenga / Midia NINJA. EspañolPortuguês

Although promotional tours and concerts are
exhausting for musicians, they are a fundamental element of show-business and
they must be undertaken with enthusiasm and professionalism. The same goes for
electoral campaigns, and for any presidential or vice-presidential candidate
that follows this path, it is usually a case of the more campaign visits the
better, the more selfies the better, the more exhausting the better.

But amidst this promotional tour, there can
emerge a moment of quiet where one can find peace, a space of recovery, of
serenity, and in which one can connect with their inner-most emotions. And this
is what occurred last September the 6th for the first ever indigenous
candidate for the vice-presidency in Brazil, Sônia Bone Guajajara, during a
stopover in the city of Santarém, en route to São Paulo via Belén, at the mouth
of the Amazon.

Making the most of her stop over, Sônia got
in touch with female indigenous leaders active in the neighbouring river
Tapajós, one of the largest aquifers in the world and a place of significance
within the Amazon region, most of whom are active under the group name “Suraras
do Tapajós” (warriors of the Tapajós). She also contacted Raquel Rosenberg,
leader of the Engajamundo youth movement that has been directing a project
“Engage in the Amazon” since August that works with engaging young people from
indigenous communities from the river Tapajós with the hope of mobilising them.

The threats to the survival of the river
are huge: agro-business, the illegal logging industry, the construction of
ports and dams, and even property pressure from a growing tourism industry.
There are more than sufficient reasons to be alert and to support indigenous
communities in the defence of their rights and in the fight for a development
that is both healthy and sustainable. Groups such as Saúde e Alegria, an
emblematic project with their base in Santarém, see this as their principal
objective.

The proposal that arose from the
conversation between Sônia and the other female leaders was that of convoking a
meeting with the Suraras but whilst submerged in the river, a hydro-meeting as
they referred to it. Submerging themselves in the river and share discussions
with other indigenous female leaders turned out to be a great idea, something
unprecedented, that fostered an intense and powerful conversation.

The meeting began at the last light of the
day, and lasted until the celestial vault became filled with stars. The
indigenous leader and candidate, together with Guilherme Boulos, the leader of
the Homeless Workers Movement and presidential candidate for the PSOL (Socialism and Liberty Party) for the
up and coming October elections, wanted to surround herself with a dozen women
who, like herself, have undertaken a deeply asymmetric fight against the mighty
forces of extractivism.

However, the waters of the river, sacred
for indigenous communities, exercised their revitalising powers and the
conversation flowed with intimacy until twilight. Sônia, or Sonihna as her
fellow warriors like to call her, told of the enormous challenge being the only
indigenous candidate in the presidential race and of the difficulties at the
core of her mission to defend indigenous communities in a political sphere that
has traditionally made them invisible.

Submerged in the calm of the river and
inspired by ancestral energy, Sônia spoke of how the collective fight favours
the community, of how they must not only stand up in defence of indigenous
communities in Brazil but they must also fight for a stable ecosystem, for the
conservation of the river, and of the rainforest. As all indigenous people know
too well she said, resisting is existing.

Forming a circle of bodies floating in the
water as the last light of the day rested on the horizon, the women spoke of
this special moment they are experiencing and how, despite the difficulties
they face in a country with tremendous machismo, they are the protagonists of
this story, they are the ones capable of fighting, of resisting, of telling new
narratives.

In this revitalising exercise, in contact
with a river that affirms the power of the ancestral spirit, the certainty of
being, every individual in the meeting turned their heads towards a shooting
star, whose golden trail glowed off retinas for an instant that almost appeared
eternal.

It was a cosmic moment, that preceded a
brief but solemn purification ceremony in luke-warm waters, perfumed with herbs
prepared according to ancestral ritual practice. A moment of silence was
shared, whilst conscious of the transcendence of the moment in which the water
spilled from a ritual bowl onto the heads of those present, one after the
other, accompanied by words of purification, different words for each blessing.

The ceremony drew to a close, while
complicity, anecdotes, and jokes returned to the circle, as if someone longed
to break the ice after witnessing such a moment. The hydro-meeting was
disbanded harmoniously, with each individual taking their time to return to the
shore, to the normality of every day life, to the road-show of the electoral
campaign.

Indigenous communities know the meanings of
oppression, of violence and they know the collective fight can contribute to
the growth of true democracy in Brazil that is currently threatened by brutal
digressions towards an authoritarian regime. Fortunately, many women have
raised their voices against the arbitrary nature of a cruel economic model that
oppresses, that excludes and that kills. And they are fighting.

Sônia Guajajara repeats in her campaign
when she has the chance, that there have been 518 years of oppression, but now
it will be the women, indigenous, black, warriors, any woman with the audacity
and courage, that will have the capacity to defend a democracy that is so
threatened today in Brazil. They know of the importance of winning, so that a
new story can be told.

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